Mobile wireless communication devices, such as a cellular telephone or a wireless personal digital assistant, can provide a wide variety of communication services including, for example, voice communication, text messaging, internet browsing, and electronic mail. Mobile wireless communication devices can operate in a wireless communication network of overlapping “cells”, each cell providing a geographic area of wireless signal coverage that extends from a radio network subsystem located in the cell. The radio network subsystem can include a base transceiver station (BTS) in a Global System for Communications (GSM) network or a Node B in a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network. The radio network subsystem can also be referred to as a radio access network in a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network and can include a BTS.
The mobile wireless communication device can receive signals transmitted from one or more cells in the wireless communication network. The radio network subsystems in each of the cells can be located at different distances from the mobile wireless communication device, and therefore signals received at the mobile wireless communication device can vary in signal strength and/or signal quality. The mobile wireless communication device can measure and monitor the received signals to determine to which cells a connection can be achieved and maintained. Together with one or more radio network subsystems in the wireless communication network, the mobile wireless communication device can select to which cells to connect and disconnect as the mobile wireless communication device moves throughout the wireless network.
Base transceiver stations from which the mobile wireless communication device can receive and measure signals can be classified by the mobile wireless communication device into several different categories and grouped into sets. The mobile wireless communication device can report measurements received and request changes to classification of base transceiver stations or equivalently unique signals that identify the base transceiver stations, such as pilot signals received from base transceiver stations. Changes in classification of pilot signals can require communication with the wireless network through messages exchanged with the radio network subsystem including the base transceiver stations. Message exchange can require repeated transmissions in a noisy environment, and acknowledged transmission of a message can take significant time. In a dynamically varying radio frequency environment, messages undergoing retransmission can become out of date, resulting in unnecessary transmissions and delayed updates to the classification.
Thus there exists a need to manage radio resources more effectively between a mobile wireless communication device and a wireless communication network during dynamically changing network conditions.